PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Sunday

Scripture lesson: Matthew 20:1-16 The problem of latecomers

Time to reflect: Do people who partied their entire lives then repent on their deathbed get the same salvation as those who were good their whole lives? First, issues of salvation and fairness are apples and oranges – there is no relationship. Fairness is an earthly measure. Second, salvation is salvation. There are no gradations (sort of saved? partially saved?) Finally, as in verse 15, God can do what God wants, that is God's prerogative as God. Who of us are in a position to second guess God?

Moving through the day: Pray about the fact that those of us who come to God early have the joy and satisfaction of serving God all that time. Latecomers are deprived of this opportunity.

Scripture:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

 "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.

   "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

 " 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
      "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."